AirAsia flight U-turns on mid-air problem

[Naim 6]

Jega first broke this news on Facebook yesterday.

 

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AirAsia flight U-turns on mid-air problem

By Neville Spykerman

June 06, 2010

 

SEPANG, June 6 — A fully booked AirAsia flight to Yogyakarta yesterday was forced to return to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) here yesterday morning when the plane developed “technical problems”.

 

Jega Ponnudorai, who was on board the flight, said passengers were informed about the problem about 30 to 40 minutes into the flight.

 

“We were over Malacca when the pilot informed us that they had turned back because the cabin could not be pressurised,” said the 45-year-old businessman to The Malaysian Insider.

 

The plane, which could not fly above 10,000 feet was forced to “burn fuel” for well over an hour by circling over Malacca and the LCCT before they could finally land.

 

“We were told the plane was too heavy and the pilot explained that burning fuel was a normal safety measure.”

 

Ponnudorai said the pilot and crew behaved professionally. He explained that they had kept passengers in the loop over what was going on.

 

“There was no panic at all,” he said.

 

However, there was some inconvenience when the flight finally landed.

 

He explained this was due to a scramble among passengers to get on another plane to Yogyakarta.

 

There was a further delay of about 45 minutes as the crew prepared the plane for the flight which reached Indonesia at about 11.30am.

 

When contacted, Khairul Nisa Ismail from AirAsia Communication acknowledged that flight AK594 departed at 7am but had to return after half an hour due to a technical problem.

 

She said the plane landed safely at Kuala Lumpur and passengers were switched to a standby airplane before departing at 9.45am.

 

“We abide to the standard safety guidelines for the safety of passengers and we apologized for any inconvenience caused,” she said.

 

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/airasia-flight-u-turns-on-mid-air-problem/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

nothing serious, it was just a precautionary RTB only. better than going to JOG and getting the aircraft AOG in JOG.

[Ahmad M 1]

30 to 40 minutes into the flight and they were still over Malacca? One heck of a slow flight methinks.

 

On a more serious note, anybody know if AK's A320 can't land overweight like the A330's since they had to burn fuel before landing?

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Any info on the rego of this aircraft? Recently another AK A320 involved in a pressurization incident mid air too (it was on flight AK 739 BKK-KUL on 25 May 2010 aboard 9M-AHG). And it was reported in full glorious details by SQflyergirl, the super-grand-diva and also founder of SQ Talk. This is her trip report, The day I feared for my life: The most harrowing 40 minutes on a plane I've ever spent. http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9526

[Ja Singh 2]

Any info on the rego of this aircraft? Recently another AK A320 involved in a pressurization incident mid air too (it was on flight AK 739 BKK-KUL on 25 May 2010 aboard 9M-AHG). And it was reported in full glorious details by SQflyergirl, the super-grand-diva and also founder of SQ Talk. This is her trip report, The day I feared for my life: The most harrowing 40 minutes on a plane I've ever spent. http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9526

 

Thanks for the link Azizul. Funny how this planes are new but still have this kind of pressurization problems.Wonder what will happen when they start to come out of China!

 

Waiting for the rego info just like you.Paging for Ramani.

[Waiping 12]

Manufacturing defect...

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

Any info on the rego of this aircraft? Recently another AK A320 involved in a pressurization incident mid air too (it was on flight AK 739 BKK-KUL on 25 May 2010 aboard 9M-AHG). And it was reported in full glorious details by SQflyergirl, the super-grand-diva and also founder of SQ Talk. This is her trip report, The day I feared for my life: The most harrowing 40 minutes on a plane I've ever spent. http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9526

 

don't know much but heard that it was manually deployed. maybe it was SOP though.

[aaronhiew 0]

Happened for many times,

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

Happened for many times,

 

what happened many times? an ATB or pressurization problem? appreciate if you don't speculate if you don't know. ATB happens for a reason, and not because of yield not enough or suddenly the capt. received an SMS from the management to abort that sector because it wasn't profitable.

[GeO 0]

If for BKI-KUL flight, the captain can maintain 8000ft or below until KUL. And get the engineer to fix the problem once in KUL.